Port Arthur resident receives new home with mayor’s help

Port Arthur Mayor Delores “Bobbie” Prince and city manager Floyd Johnson presented resident Thressal Lorraine Prevost with the key to her new home at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, March 27, at 1 p.m. The event took place at Prevost’s newly built four-bedroom, two-bathroom house on 14th Street in Port Arthur.

Prevost is a single mother who takes care of two special needs sisters in addition to her own daughter. She said her mother, who owned the house before she passed three years ago, originally applied for housing assistance because the house was in poor condition. After her death, Prevost took responsibility for her two sisters. She said she tried to continue the process, attempting to secure aid to repair her damaged home. She was in such dire need of help that she picked up the phone and called the mayor.

“It was raining on the inside of the house,” Prevost recalled. “There was electrical damage, the lights would not work in the front of the house.”

Prevost said the mayor was an old friend of her family’s and guided her through the process of securing funds through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She said the process was long and tedious, but it was well worth the wait. She qualified for the city-implemented owner occupied rehabilitation program administered by HUD. Because the original home was in such poor condition and not feasible to repair, she was told the house would be torn down and a new one built on the same property.

Wednesday, she was ecstatic to see her new, larger home.

“This is what we have been waiting for,” she said. “This is a blessing to me. They (her sisters) have been a blessing to me. This is what family is for — to stick together, to help each other. Thank you to everyone!”